The Good and Evil Serpent (139 page)

While this latter information pertains to a god other than Asclepius, it is appropriate here as it helps us comprehend the relation between the snake and the circle of the cosmos, which is apparent also in the Asclepian cult. Asclepius, who is associated with Dionysus since both were lauded as the god of the sun, is not far from mind when Macrobius explains that Dionysus “moves in a circle round the infinite broad Olympus.”
⁴⁴
That means the god whirls around or rotates around the heavens.

To understand
rotas
as the second-person singular, indicative mood, of
roto
, “to cause to turn around like a wheel” or “revolve” would not improve the meaning of the group of words. We would have then only understood the words to mean, “The Creator I creep toward holds with effort, you rotate.” The second person seems out of place and the sentence would then lack a direct object.

We might conceivably take
rotas
as a symbolic reference to the chariot wheels on which the Sun rides on its daily route around the earth—using the cosmology of the ancients. But is there any clear link between Asclepius and the sun? The answer is emphatically “yes.” Note the following statement by Proclus who wrote shortly after the completion of the Fourth Gospel: “Porphyry declares it reasonable that even the art of healing comes from Athena, because also Asclepius is lunar intellect, just as Apollo is solar intellect. … In fact, one should place also Asclepius in the Sun.”
⁴⁵
Later, in the fourth century
CE
, Macrobius mentioned: “[T]he serpent is placed at the foot of the statues of Asclepius and Health, because these gods are traced back to the nature of the sun and moon. … the serpent is shown to be one of the special attributes of the sun
[ad solis naturam lunaeque referuntur]
, because it derives its name from
derkein
, meaning ‘to see.’ “
⁴⁶
In the fifth century
CE
, Proclus advised: “[O]ne should place also Asclepius in the sun letting him proceed from there to the world of becoming.”
⁴⁷
The previous quotations prove that Leisegang was correct when he reported: “ [T]he Roman Janus and likewise Liber and Dionysus, Apollo, Asclepius, and Zeus are actually sun gods and are all connected with one another.”
⁴⁸

Is Not
Sator
in the Nominative?

We turn now to a problem that seems to have hindered decipherment: the assumed nominative noun
Sator
. In a well-crafted sentence, we should expect precise grammar, and some experts seem to prefer the accusative
satorem
. But the square is not a narrative statement. Another word square found at Pompeii has the following:

The meaning is quite clear: “love of Rome.” But notice that the square does not require the imposition of good grammar.
Roma
should have been in the genitive
Romae
.

Grammar is not a primary key for unlocking a cryptogram like the Rotas-Sator Square. On the one hand, such cryptograms are not to be confused with narrative, but, on the other, they are not the meaningless gibberish typical of the magical papyri.
⁴⁹

Sator
, a third-declension noun, is most likely a vocative form. It probably means “O Creator.”

Is
Sator
appropriate for Asclepius? It is used of Jupiter. Livy, Plautus, and Virgil would have agreed:
sator hominum atque deorum
(“Creator of men as well as of gods”). Asclepius is sometimes identified with Jupiter or Zeus, who is frequently known as sator. Note, for example, the following comment by Aristides: “Asclepius … has every power … the people here [i.e., at Pergamum] have built a temple [to honor] Zeus Asclepius.”
⁵⁰
Perhaps the one invoked is none other than Zeus, who is also depicted with serpents (as is clear in the previous chapters). The collapsing of any distinction between Zeus and Asclepius, and the depiction of Zeus plowing, is not far from the image of
Sator
as the “sower.”
Sator
is appropriate equally for Zeus and Asclepius since it also means “Creator.”

The clear mythological dimension of the Rotas-Sator Square is clarified by Philo of Byblos. His
Phoenician History
was composed in the late first or early second century
CE
, and that is close to the time for the completion of the Fourth Gospel (c. 95
CE)
. Philo reported: “Dagon, since he discovered grain and plough, was called Zeus Ploughman.”
⁵¹
One of the Titanids who mated with Sydyk is called the “ ‘just one,’ and bore Asclepius.”
⁵²

The noun
sator
also means progenitor or father. That is important because we do have references to Asclepius as “father.” Note, for example, the words attributed to Asclepius by Herondas in the third century
BCE:
“Father Paieon.” Paieon is a nickname for Asclepius.
⁵³

In order to explain the Rotas-Sator Square, I prefer to stay with Asclepius. The Latin cryptic word square has been found in many parts of the Roman Empire. The square became popular exactly when Asclepius became the supreme god in many cities. An inscription from the third century
BCE
refers to Ascelpius as “the best of all the gods.”
⁵⁴
Asclepius is the one to beseech, “if any of the gods is to be invoked.”
⁵⁵
The author of a second-century
CE
papyrus from Oxyrhynchus salutes Asclepius as the “greatest of gods.”
⁵⁶
He is the god of healing, of resurrection, and of light.

Soldiers, particularly those wounded or fearing battle, would have been especially attracted to a mystical cryptogram honoring Asclepius. Note Philostratus’ comment from the late second or early third century
CE
that Asclepius easily heals wounds from war, the chase, and all such chance occurrences.
⁵⁷

The Rotas-Sator Square thus does not seem to be Mithraic,
⁵⁸
but devotees of Mithra most likely would have been attracted to it, since they also revered Asclepius. The cryptograph is also unlikely to be Orphic,
⁵⁹
but again worshippers of Orpheus also invoked Asclepius. It is not Jewish.
⁶⁰
I am also convinced that the weakest solution is to assume (or conclude) that the cryptograph is Christian.

My suggestion that the Latin cryptograph is a mystical invocation or celebration of the god of healing and life, Asclepius, meets the demands made on us by the archaeological settings in which it has been found. Any solution to the mystical cryptograph must obviously transcend all barriers and even cultures since the Latin square has been found inscribed on leather probably found in Saxony, in the Palaestra at Pompeii, on the wall of the Temple of Azzanathkona at Dura-Europos, and in the Palace of the Governor at Aquincum (in Budapest). As Julianus (332–363) commented, Asclepius “is present everywhere on land and sea.”
⁶¹

The cryptograph has been found in the parish church of Pieve Terzagni near Cremona, but it dates from a later period (the eleventh century).
⁶²
The Christian reuse of the cryptograph should not influence our search for an understanding of its original meaning, and its importance in the first century
CE
.

My hypothesis also nicely fits the phenomena that accompanied the cult of Asclepius. In the first century
CE
, no other god was so well and widely worshipped in shrines and in the home as Asclepius. Apparently not only Romans but those living throughout the empire needed Asclepius for adoration, and prayed to him, as in the Hymn to Asclepius in the Orphic hymns: “Asklepios, Lord Paian, healer of all … come, O Blessed One, as Savior and bring life to a good end.”
⁶³

Any interpretation of the cryptograph should explain the social needs of those who revered it. That would be the case since Asclepius was admired for good health and healing. That need transcends the normal influences of a cult.

An indication that my solution for the decipherment of the mystical cryptograph helps solve the mysterious Latin is the word that is composed of all the letters:
paterno
. This Latin form means “paternal” or “ancestor.” It is found in Juvenal’s
Satires
. He mentions a maiden “who lives on her paternal farm
[rure paterno].”
⁶⁴
The form also appears about the same time as the composition of the Fourth Gospel since Tacitus in his
Histories
uses it when he describes how Domitian was led to his “ancestral hearth”
(in paternos penatis deduxit).
⁶⁵

Is the arrangement of the letters in the cryptograph a subtle indication that Asclepius is meant to be invoked? He is called the ancestral god. For example, the famous Galen (129–199
CE)
declared himself to be a worshipper of “the ancestral god Asclepius.”
⁶⁶

Conclusion

The criteria for discerning the meaning of the Rotas-Sator Square have been met. Former attempts have failed to discern the meaning of this cryptograph. Some leave out letters, notably A and O. Others present a translation that would be meaningless in a cryptic square. That is, a nonmetaphorical meaning does not meet the requirements of a cryptograph; for example, the following prevalent suggestion is not cryptic: “Arepo the sower holds the wheels with labor.” Many are content to give up with
arepo
, suggesting only that it is some unknown name. I have endeavored to show that it is not “simply the reverse of
OPERA
and that its form is determined entirely by the problems inherent in constructing a twenty-five letter square from the intersecting
PATER NOSTER
’s with two A’s and two O’s.”
⁶⁷

As Baines demonstrated, Latin offers itself easily for cryptic squares.
⁶⁸
The key does not lie “with some unknown man called Arepo.”
⁶⁹
The key is provided by discerning that
arepo
denotes “to crawl toward.” And this insight brings forward serpent imagery and symbolism; and that—in the historical context—suggests Asclepius. He is the god who comes to those needing healing in the form of a serpent.
⁷⁰

We have endeavored to establish that the cryptograph seems to mean “The creator—[to whom] I creep—holds the wheels with effort.” Using this indicative sentence, soldiers and others could turn it into a prayer with invocatory power. They could say the word at the base of the square,
sator
, then the word at the top,
rotas
, which is its mirror image. Third, the two other mirror images would be chanted: opera arepo. Finally, the central—indeed structural importance—of
tenet
, the palindrome, would be an invocation. What would such a plea mean?

The first word,
sator
, would be a vocative that could be repeated: “O Creator, O Creator.” Then Asclepius’ desired attribute would be lauded in the second person:
rotas
, “you who cause (all) to rotate.” The promise of the petitioner seems represented by
opera arepo
, “With effort I crawl toward [you].” Finally, the mantra would conclude with the request:
tenet, tenet, tenet, tenet
, which is written in the cryptograph, as it were, north to south, east to west, south to north, and west to east. That would mean: “Maintain [the rotations from the north, the east, the south, and the west].” Thus, the square would replicate the cosmology of four corners. The invocation is strikingly similar to others often connected with serpent mythology; note, for example, the following cited by Macrobius, admittedly rather late (c. fourth cent.) but recognized as containing ideas that originated much earlier:

Hear, thou who [turns forever] the radiant sphere

of distant motion [that runs round the celestial vortices].
⁷¹

The
Prayer of Jacob
comes to mind when I think about the Rotas-Sator Square as an invocation. Recall the following from this Jewish magical prayer: “Creator of the angels … I invoke you. … Father of the [wh]ole [co]s[mos] [and of] all creation. … He[a]r me. … God of gods; amen, amen. … [S]ay [the p]r[a]y[e]r o[f] Jacob seven times to [the] Nor[th] and E[a]st.”
⁷²